Porphyrin and doxorubicin mediated nanoarchitectonics of copper clusters: a bimodal theranostics for cancer diagnosis and treatment in vitro

Nanoarchitectonics, an emerging strategy, presents a promising alternative for developing highly efficient next-generation functional materials. Multifunctional materials developed using nanoarchitectonics help to mimic biological molecules. Porphyrin-based molecules can be effectively utilized to design such assemblies. Metal nanocluster is one of the functional materials that can shed more insight into developing nanoarchitectonic materials. Herein, an inherently near-infrared (NIR) fluorescing copper nanocluster (CuC)-mediated structural assembly via protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) and doxorubicin (Dox) is demonstrated as the functional material. Dox-loaded porphyrin-mediated CuC assembly shows singlet oxygen generation and 66% drug release at 15 min. Furthermore, the efficacy of this material is tested for cancer diagnosis and bimodal therapeutic strategy due to the fluorescing ability of the cluster and loading of PPIX as well as the drug, respectively. The nanoarchitecture exhibits targeted imaging and 83% cell death in HeLa cells upon laser irradiation with 10 nmoles and 20 nmoles of PPIX and Dox, respectively.